Qatar 2023 has bring in some drama and a few battles, yesterday sprint race battle between top cars like the McLaren and the Red Bull shows how many levels their cars are over the rest, Russel had to be on soft tires to take a few shots at Piastri because on an even fight the Mercedes Car has no saying. We also saw on the start of the sprint race how bad cars were spinning their tires trying to get some grip, the most affected that I could notice was Lando Norris when even when he was on power he was spinning from time to time, all this because of the sand on the track.

Lets talk Oscar Piastri, he came to McLaren as a rookie from Alpine with a good carrier track and a lot of talent but not necessarily to overcome Lando, back on Silverstone this year Lando had the first taste of what are now all the updates that McLaren has brought to the car but for now the one taking the best out the car is Piastri, after a failed attempt with Ricciardo they brought Piastri as possible new promise for the team taking in consideration that when you bring in a rookie you are expecting him to do rookie things, some are up to the task and others like in the case of Mick or Sargent can't handle the pressure not only the car but the team, expectations, fans, the hole Formula 1 Driver Experience is not easy, they might have the talent but cant focus enough because of all this other factors, then you might end up with a driver like Yuki who is not a rookie at F1 anymore and now days can score points at the middle of the pack from time to time. Piastri IS A TALENT!! at first I knew that the McLaren car was not at the level Lando or Piastri would want, as a fact Lando once said at the beginning of the season in Australia that the car seem worst than previous season so it was unfair to judge Piastri performance, but when the car had that evolution on Silverstone he started to demonstrate to the world his true talent as a Formula 1 Driver, I always say that most of the drivers on F1 have earn their spot and are very good its just that some of them will never had a car that can help them do great things. Today for the race Piastri will start sixth and Lando tenth after a very bad Quali for both, exceeding track limits has been the tale of weekend due to track conditions mainly, not because the drivers wanted too and the most funny thing happen to Piastri, the moment he was interview after Quali and end third; he got notified his time was deleted due to exceeding track limits and now starts sixth, he even took the Quali picture with Max and George as third LOL.

Info graphic of when the Race Starts Today depending on where you are

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Not something I want to talk a lot about but still have to mention, Max Verstappen is three times Formula 1 World Champion, after the Qatar Sprint Race Max has enough points that no body can take the Drivers Championship away from him, I said that this is not something I wanted to talk about too much because this was known, it was going to happen one way or another, the possibilities of Max not winning were very low although during the sprint race he didn't have the best startup, Max started third and after the first corner and a bad start he was sixth, one might worry and say whats going on with the car but it was the surface and wheel spinning, after Max reestablish he took proper control and start to close gaps lucky for him also there were two safety cars that help him come closer to Piastri to end second on the Sprint race.

Max has done great things this season, one of them is TEN CONSECUTIVE WINS, that record is something very hard to achieve in any sport, with a total of twenty three races for this year max win thirteen with six more races to go counting Qatar that is very likely he wins, on ten of those thirteen races he got Pole Position showing Leclerc and Ferrari how its done, if I'm not mistaken Leclerc holds the record of the worst driver with the most Pole since usually when you make Pole you win the race this is not all the time but very likely, Leclerc manage to not win most of the races when he made Pole. Max is showing he is more mature in terms of driving, he still has that desire to win but I feel that sometimes the media wants to push him to say YEAH I want to break records, beat Hamilton but that's just not Max and who knows if he wants to or if he will, with three championships in the bag is still not an easy task to make four more.

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The race has brought a very nice drama, part of it is Max not totally dominating the sprint race, usually when he does there is something that the race goes smooth and boring but Qatar Sprint Race was not the case, there were a few nice small battles like Russell vs Piastri or Sainz vs Hamilton and that's good old racing, great racing head to head but it is very unfortunate what happen to Checo Perez.

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Ocon is the new version of Latifi, I know Max, Gasly and now Checo would agree, what he did yesterday at the Sprint Race was a very stupid decision, when you go into the replay its obvious Nico had no blame on this accident, Nico finds himself sandwich between Ocon and Perez, Ocon from the left Perez on the right and Nico did the smartest move and that was to hit the brakes but even with him doing that Ocon's intention was to push him to the right so he puts pressure on Perez and he Ocon thought they would both do as he said or wanted them to, you dont have to be a Formula 1 driver to learn how to recognize the dimensions of your car and the speed you are traveling at, F1 drivers know that its very easy to get caught by a front wing from some one you are trying to push and that's exactly what happen, Nico hit the brakes and still caught Ocon with the front wing the Ocon tire glows up instantly, this is carbon fiber wing basically a knife; Ocon loose the rear and goes straight into Perez.

Three into one doesn't go it never does, I can not imagine the crash if Nico had not stop, potentially Ocon could take orbit and fly over Nico, this could be way worst if Nico didn't stop all because Ocon wanted to push them both to the outside considering there is more track to his left, still considering that anyways he was going to get over taken by Hamilton if he did this, what is the logic behind him pushing this two other drivers to the edge of the track.

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Here is another take when they get out of turn one, we can see Ocon totally to on the edge of the track and this was his desicion, Nico never push him there, Ocons goes deep and Nico letting him thinking ok I got you after turn one but then Ocon starts to push him to the other side of the track still enough space but at this point he MUST have seen Perez too plus there is Hamilton in the back, there was more than enough time for him to either do any of this:

• Let them go and attack after turn two
• Slow down and try to stay side by side but on his side not pushing them

Because of this crash Checo Perez had to take a new engine and will start from the pit lane.

 

 

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This is my expectations for the race

1. MAX VERSTAPPEN
2. OSCAR PIASTRI
3. LEWIS HAMILTON

I don't think Ferrari, Mercedes or Aston Martin had enough pace to stay with the Max or Piastri, between the two Mercedes drivers is a gamble, I choose Hamilton third because I think he is a better driver but him and Russell are very even this weekend, we will definitely have a few cars park on the sand resulting in safety cars, just hope nothing mayor.